When a good credit score can ruin your financial life, why worry about a bad one?

AOL Autos reporter Bengt Halvorson offers consumers struggling with sky-high lease payments some advice on how to get out of their leases. According to Halvorson, simply breaking the lease and going the "voluntary repossession route isn't the best option because it can hurt your credit score quite a bit."

His alternatives, unfortunately, leave quite a bit to be desired: "If you do think you'll have a job a year from now, your lease is just a few months from ending, and your credit-card limits are high, you might want to consider simply paying off the remainder of the lease (the sum of all the payments yet due) on a credit card. You will of course be paying a lot of interest over the long run, but you'll be free of costly insurance payments on the newer vehicle and provided you can maintain your card payments you won't destroy your credit as you would going deadbeat on the lease."